Photograph
by iloveslinky
Summary: This is a songfic of Photograph by Nickelback. A 25-year-old Jimmy is in therapy and must come to terms with why he cannot invent anymore. This is a oneshot, but I might make it into more depending on whether people like it or not. RXR please.


**A/N:** I don't own Jimmy Neutron. The song in this fic is Photograph by Nickelback. I do not own that either. I did omit some verses because they didn't really make sense with the JN background. Ok, good luck tonight, and remember haaaaaaave fun with it!

Jimmy Neutron picked up his fifth grade class photo from a large pile of memories on the ground. His therapist insisted that they go through old photos to get to the root of his problems. The photo was of course the one taken with only his angry eyes and eyebrows. He chuckled to the woman sitting next to him.

"_Look at this photograph. Every time I do it makes me laugh. How did my face get so red?_" He looked a little closer at the photo. "_And what the hell is on Carl's head?_"

"Who's that?" said the brunette woman sitting next to him, 25 year-old Jimmy Neutron's new therapist.

"Carl?" Jimmy started. "He was my best friend right up until the last day of high school. And see the socially awkward guy in the blue shirt next to him? That was my other best friend, Sheen. He had the biggest crush on her." He pointed at Libby in the front row. "She was one of my best friends."

Julie's eyes held sympathy. "What happened to all of them?" she asked quietly.

"Carl went to work at Retroland's petting zoo taking care of the llamas after high school. Sheen went to work as the drive thru cashier for the McSpanky's in Retroville. I think he's working as the store manager there now. Libby designs clothes. She went away for college but went back to Retroville and lives there now."

Julie wrote a little on the notepad she was holding and nodded. "Show me more pictures."

Jimmy complied and found a picture of his family standing on the front porch of his house. "_And this is where I grew up. I think the present owner fixed it up. The second floor is hard for sneaking out." _He found another picture of himself, Carl, and Sheen array of photos spread out on the floor. The three were dressed in caps and gowns, obviously graduating from elementary school and taking the picture after the ceremony. "_And this is where I went to school. Most of the time had better things to do._ You know, I'm a genius."

Julie just nodded and scribbled away on her pad.

"I _remember the _Candy Bar. We _blew every dollar that we ever made_ on shakes and banana splits and Atomic Choco Blasts. _The cops hated us hangin' out_ because they were always waiting for me to blow something else up. Sam was a good sport about it though. He thought our shenanigans brought in more customers. I think he was wrong."

"Can you still go back to this place?"

"_They say somebody went and burned it down. _I think it was Nick Dean." He picked up the class photo again and pointed him out.

"Why do you say that?"

"He was just never really a good egg."

Jimmy picked up a new photo, this one of Cindy and Jimmy at a birthday party. Cindy sat in front of a large cake with lit candles making a wish before she blew them out. Jimmy sat beside her with a magical look in his eyes, one of love. "_Cindy's the first girl I kissed. I was so nervous that I nearly missed. I haven't seen her since God knows when._"

"What happened to her?"

Jimmy's eyes didn't leave the picture the whole time he told this story. "We were dating when it came time to go off to college. She got accepted to Stanford. I was accepted to MIT, Harvard, and Yale. Obviously, we tried the long distance relationship, and it just didn't work out, so, after a few months, we broke up and went our separate ways."

"Why did you break up?" Julie asked after a moment of writing on her pad.

Jimmy was quiet for a moment and seemed to swallow a lump in his throat. "She cheated on me," he finally said very softly.

"You loved her a lot, didn't you?"

Jimmy just nodded with tears in his eyes. "She broke up with me on our seven year anniversary."

"That must have been traumatic," she said flatly. "Do you think this break up might have something to do with the fact that you can't invent anymore?"

"I always invented for her. I wanted to impress her, to make her see that she chose the right guy. Even when my inventions would go awry, I was still proud of them because they got her attention, even if it was in a negative way." He sighed. "I miss her._ I miss that town. I miss the faces. You can't erase, you can't replace it. I miss it now. I can't believe it. So hard to stay, too hard to leave it._"

"Why don't you go back?" Julie said.

"I just can't." Jimmy began crying gently to himself (**A/N: **like a _real_ man!). "I just can't."

"Why not?"

"Cindy's there, and they all hate me," he gushed.

"Why do they hate you?"

"I don't know," he lied. "Maybe because I always would put the town in danger when I was a kid." (Not true.)

"It may be_ hard to say it, _but it's_ time to say it_," Julie said softly. "_Goodbye."_

"_Goodbye_," Jimmy whispered quietly. He found another picture of himself, Sheen, and Carl at Retroland the night they snuck out and their parents were abducted. Carl was off to the side of the photo still marveling over his 'I touched a llama' button, Sheen was in the middle standing with his chest puffed out like Ultra Lord, and Jimmy was running back to the two of them trying to make it into the shot before the timer went off. "_Look at this photograph. Every time I do it makes me laugh_."

"Jimmy," Julie said.

He pulled his eyes from the picture.

"I think you know what you need to do to fix your inventing problems."

Jimmy nodded. "I need to go back, don't I?" He sat in silence for a little while. "Then I'll go back."


End file.
